I've never been so disgusted with an officiating crew in my life. Van der
mars gave Portland the lead late, only after committing at least two fouls in
order to come up with the offensive rebound. Immediately afterwards, he commits
a reach in on Mika. No call there either. And then Collinsworth clearly gets
fouled driving for the winning lay up...and the officials give Portland the ball
out of bounds.

Even a semi-rational byu will admit this puts the nail in the coffin in
byu's at large hopes.

Portland is a very bad team, and byu
isn't good enough to beat them apparently.

Saturday night
against Gonzaga should be fun. I'm guessing a 15-20 point win for Gonzaga.
I'm betting a bigger Gonzaga win than an Arizona win over Utah, and
Arizona is the best team in the country and Gonzaga isn't even ranked in
all the polls.

Granted, for Portland to beat Gonzaga was an accomplishment. However, the Zags
struggled at home against San Diego, another second rate team.The Cougs
really shouldn't have trouble beating all but two of the WCC teams, even on
their home courts. Most of their facilities are really "gyms" and they
hardly sell out any games.

No wonder Sports Illustrated rates this
conference as the next to the weakest in the nation.

Portland's win over Gonzaga shows they can play. Cougars hopes of a
tournament WCC Championship depend upon their not giving in or up...remember
they were only 3rd in their conference the year Ainge made the drive and they
made the great 8. They need to keep working, keep getting better, and keep
believing...go Cougars!

If the Book of Job ever had a basketball game in it, It would be this game.
Tyler was brilliant. He broke records. No college player in America was better
than he tonight. And he lost. On the whole, it was a shame that someone had to
lose the game: both teams were like poetry for great stretches of that game --
that endless game.

Perhaps it wasn't a good strategy to just hold the ball and waste clock,
and not even make a half hearted effort at a decent shot when up 5. Watching
Carlino just waste 30 seconds on the clock and then throw up a terrible brick
was just too funny.

Up till this year I
thought that Coach Rose was one of the very best in the business but the ugly
truth is that he is being out coached this year... Don't know what is going
on but there is trouble in cougarville... None of our "Bigs" are playing
"well"... Austin is afraid to take a shot unless it's a cripple
(although he does well on the boards), Mika seems to be getting worse with every
game, he was very weak tonight on both ends of the floor...

Collinsworth's offense, IMHO, is very over-rated... In 43 minutes tonight
he scores 12 points on 3-8 from the field, 6-12 from the line, and worst of all
he had only 4 assists against 6 TOs... That's horrible but consistent with
his other games... His strength is Defense and Rebounding... Until he starts
hitting 75% or better from the line Rose needs to take the ball out of his
hands...

3 balls and free throws continue to stink.

Both
Carlino and Haws had good games... But this should have been a win.

1) An opposing guard has
a career scoring night and BYU gets killed at the three-point line.2) The
Cougars' inside defense is horrendous and they are unable to get key
defensive rebounds.3) The BYU foul shooting is distressingly poor.4)
Cougar guards inexplicably huck up three-pointers and turn the ball over.5) BYU's coach gets outcoached in the last few minutes.Cougars play hard
and entice their fans into thinking they might win . . . but lose at the wire
against solid teams.6) Cougars play hard and entice their fans into
thinking they might win . . . but lose at the wire against solid teams.

The Cougars need to learn how to break out of this frustrating pattern.
Ultimately, the coaches bear the responsibility. . . but the players win or lose
on character and discipline.